Knife gate valves are a specific type of gate valve where a knife gate with a beveled edge can be moved in and out of a path of a fluid, to selectively allow or prevent the flow of the fluid. Knife gate valves are commonly used in industrial applications to control the flow of fluid containing solid or semi-solid particles, such as powder, granules, pellets, fibers or the like. For example, knife gate valves are frequently used in papermaking, mining, chemical and sewage treatment industries.
In order to facilitate the maintenance thereof, knife gate valves are commonly equipped with a two-part replaceable sleeve in which the fluid flows, with the knife gate being moved between the two-parts thereof to selectively allow or prevent the fluid flow. Hence, the two-part replaceable sleeve, which is usually the component that is subject to the greatest wear due to abrasion resulting from the fluid flow, can be replaced when required.
Known knife gate valves however tend to suffer from several drawbacks. For example and without being limitative, with known knife gate valves, the maintenance associated to the replacement of the two-part replaceable sleeve is a time consuming process. Hence, such maintenance leads to substantially significant maintenance periods (representing downtime of the knife gate valve), as the knife gate valve commonly needs to be dismounted from a site and moved to a workshop to proceed with sleeve replacement. Such substantially significant maintenance periods lead to significant maintenance costs associated to the replacement of the sleeve, for example taking into account the salary of the worker and the loss of productivity resulting from the downtime of the knife gate valve.
In view of the above, there is a need for an improved knife gate valve which, by virtue of its design and components, would be able to overcome or at least minimize some of the above-discussed prior art concerns.